A senior engineering student at Eastern Washington University has penned an open letter to his female colleagues to highlight gender bias in the occupation.
Jared Maudlin penned the letter to the University’s newspaper in support of women working in the typically male dominated profession, and makes some pretty good points about how they’re often viewed.
He writes:
To the women in my engineering classes. While it is my intention in every other interaction I share with you to treat you as my peer, let me deviate from that to say that you and I are in fact unequal… I did not for example, grow up in a world that discouraged me from focusing on hard science… I was not bombarded with and images and slogans telling me that my true worth was in how I look.
The letter has gone down a storm on social media, having been shared well over 40,000 times. Despite now being internet famous, Jared isn’t happy that this kind of thing is considered out of the ordinary for a man to say.
He says:
Nothing I said was new, it has all been said a thousand times before. The difference is that I am a man. Maybe by standing up and breaking the silence from the male side, I can help some more men begin to see the issues, and begin to listen to the women who have been speaking about this all along.
Well said Jared, here’s to a healthy future where women can work in any profession without it being thought of as gender specific.
Mark is the Gaming Editor for UNILAD. Having grown up a gaming addict, he’s been deeply entrenched in culture and spends time away from work playing as much as possible. Mark studied music at University and found a love for journalism through going to local gigs and writing about them for local and national publications.